First brew story....

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

yes Ive found that each probe is different, also a coating can build up on probe mounted inside the pot that changes the resistance so once a year I take everything apart, clean and recalibrate each probe, I have 5 total mounted in in-line and 1 portable

 

[jeffpn]

Well it sure beats the other way!

 

[Head First]

Well it sure beats the other way!

I'm thinkin your right.
I use 3 probes in my system and the system is soaking with PBW tonight to clean off the bio film that's been building up before they get recalibrated.

 

[Brew Cat]

a sure fire way to get a true reading is take your temperature, put it in your mouth for 5 minutes and match them up, most of the time 98 is good enough for dials anyway. I do this for all of my digital probes, I use pt100 rtd my self and they are very accurate but can be adjusted with most pids

A more sanitary way is just take a reading with two thermometers if they both read the same your good. If they don't read the same get another and test. Out of the three the one that doesn't read the same is off.

 

[griz]

Do a 2nd fermentation into another carboy once your initial fermentation tapers off (approx 2 weeks) and that will help a bit to clear up your beer.

 

[GernBlanston]

How do you check it, if the only other thermometer you have is the rectal type?

 

[EbonHawk]

How do you check it, if the only other thermometer you have is the rectal type?

A rectal one will still work in other places. You just have to adjust the reading.

 

[Head First]

:roll:

 

[Brew Cat]

How do you check it, if the only other thermometer you have is the rectal type?

I guess then you gave yo use ozarcks method

 

[Nosybear]

How do you check it, if the only other thermometer you have is the rectal type?

Queue "Dueling Banjos"....

But I digress. Stick it in warm water, it will still measure temperature. Temperature is temperature, makes no difference the circumstances. The only concern would be the accuracy - human body temperature is meaningful only in a very narrow range and you don't know the thermometer's bias, particularly outside of the useful range. From a metrology standpoint, you'd have to start with a calibrated thermometer, the compare your thermometer to the reference but for our purposes, getting a calibrated thermometer with a certificate, while possible, is too expensive. Get a cheap lab thermometer, stick it in ice water and see how close to 0°C/32°F it measures, use both it and the thermometer to calibrate in a warm water sample within the range of the second thermometer, adjust the second thermometer to match the lab thermometer and RDWHAHB. Your temperature readings will be close enough.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

temperature thermometers are very accurate or else they wouldn't be selling them as such, the only reason you use it is to see if your temperature is normal say 98.6 or just 98. for me ice water is touchy the closer you get to the ice the lower the temp drops below 32, with an accurate RTD probe the temperature jumps around too much in ice water

 

[johow440@gmail.com]

Well after all the thermometer panic and such, the beer turned out very well. I am extremely pleased with the result of my first brew. Trouble is, it's all gone! That's the problem with small batches. Well I have another that's just about ripe and will be brewing a 5 gallon batch in days. I did rack to a secondary for some dry hops and it cleared very nicely I think.
Thanks for your insightful discussion.